Unique Search Engine Optimization Concept
Posts tagged Google adWords
“Bid Ideas” by Google AdWords
Feb 12th
Over the past few months, you may have visited the Opportunities tab to get customized keyword and budget ideas for optimizing your account. Now we’re adding more functionality to the Opportunities tab with the introduction of bid ideas. Bid ideas, based on bid simulator data, will help you raise or lower your bids on specific keywords to improve your AdWords ROI. Whether you wish to decrease overall costs or increase traffic to your website, customized bid ideas can help you determine exactly which bids to adjust to make the most of your advertising budget.
You’ll see bid ideas in your account if we determine there’s an opportunity for you to:
- receive significant additional clicks without a significant increase in cost
- save money without sacrificing a lot of clicks
Bid ideas will be visible in some accounts starting today, and available in all accounts in the coming weeks.
Bid ideas are shown with their estimated cost, impression, and click impact. When you click on a bid idea, you’ll see a graph showing clicks versus cost for a range of bid amounts. The graph will include your keyword’s current bid (marked in gray) and the proposed bid (marked in yellow). If you’re raising a bid, consider whether the extra clicks and impressions are worth the potential added cost. If you’re decreasing a bid, consider whether the saved cost is worth the potential loss of clicks and impressions.
The estimates you see are variations on your past performance over the last 7 days and are not attempts to predict or estimate future performance. Also, traffic patterns are always subject to fluctuation, so keep in mind that your future performance may shift over time. If you have reason to believe that next week’s traffic will be significantly different from the last week, due to seasonal reasons for example, then it’s a good idea to incorporate that information when selecting your bids.
While this tool doesn’t know enough about your advertising goals to make a recommendation of which specific bid is best for you, it does provide useful data and gives you bid ideas to consider. We suggest that you use the data we provide to gain insight into how different bids could affect your performance. If you’d like even more information on bid ideas, including information on how they’re generated, you can read our detailed article in the AdWords Help Center.
You should think of the Opportunities tab as your homepage for account optimization. You can view all your customized optimization ideas in one place, allowing you to make informed decisions before adjusting your account. We suggest checking the Opportunities tab every few weeks to look for new ideas. Continue to look out for new features in the coming months as we work to make the Opportunities tab an even more robust resource.
Pay-per-click (PPC) Service Comparision
Feb 9th
Google AdWords
Google AdWords is a PPC service with a fabulous, ready-made venue for advertisement display on “Google’s own wildly popular search engine“. In addition, Google offers advertisers the option of displaying ads on thousands of affiliate sites linked through the AdSense program and matched algorithmically with the ad content.
AdWords offers many helpful features for advertisers, including quick campaign setup, the ability to rotate multiple ads for the same group of keywords, advanced keyword matching options and geotargeting.
One disadvantage of AdWords is that advertisers can’t just pay their way to the top of the heap – rankings are based on a number of factors, including bid price and predicted clickthrough rate. Conversion tracking is included.
Future AdWords features may include behavioral targeting, in which searchers can be targeted based on past searches or other web activities.
Yahoo! Search Marketing
Yahoo! Search Marketing (YSM) is actually a suite of several online marketing tools, including sponsored search, local advertising, and the Yahoo! Directory Submitting. However, when people talk about YSM they’re generally referring to the sponsored search – that is, the pay-per-click service. Currently the #2 service. The service has a respectably large reach, including all the Yahoo! properties as well as many meta search engines, smaller search sites, and content sites such as ESPN (see partial partners list). Advertisers can choose to be displayed on additional sites through the “Content Match” option.
YSM ad campaigns are generally considered easier to set up than Google AdWords campaigns, but lack some of the geekier features, like comparing performance for multiple ads and dynamic keyword insertion. There is also an editorial review period for new listings that can take a couple of business days. Conversion tracking is included.
Rumor has it that YSM will slowly but surely become more like Google AdWords. Changes may include speeding up their campaign setup, implementing geotargeting and possibly other Google-like features, and changing the PPC ranking algorithm so that it takes more factors into account, rather than just the dollar amount of the advertiser bid.
Microsoft adCenter
Microsoft launched its pay-per-click service, Microsoft adCenter, in May of 2006 to compete with Yahoo and Google for a chunk of the growing SEM/PPC advertising market. The Microsoft offering follows the same basic model of the other two advertisers pay a per-click fee to display their listings above or near “organic” search results for chosen search queries. MSN differentiated its offering with more advanced demographic targeting options than Yahoo and Google, including the capability of adjusting keyword bid costs for differing demographics (for example, paying full price for female searchers and bidding at the 50% level for male searchers). The accuracy of these demographics has been debated. The adCenter control interface, while rather difficult to use, does offer a dynamic keyword insertion feature in the ad displays that vastly improves upon Google’s dynamic keyword insertion functionality.
Google AdWords [Google Link] is a PPC service with a fabulous, ready-made venue for advertisement display: Google’s own wildly popular search engine. In addition, Google offers advertisers the option of displaying ads on thousands of affiliate sites linked through the AdSense program and matched algorithmically with the ad content.
AdWords offers many helpful features for advertisers, including: quick campaign setup, the ability to rotate multiple ads for the same group of keywords, advanced keyword matching options and geotargeting. One disadvantage of AdWords is that advertisers can’t just pay their way to the top of the heap – rankings are based on a number of factors, including bid price and predicted clickthrough rate. Conversion tracking is included.
Future AdWords features may include behavioral targeting, in which searchers can be targeted based on past searches or other web activities.